[Lowfer] Western Updates

Mon Aug 27 01:41:04 EDT 2012

Charlie I was honored to make a presentation on Lowfer activty at 
Ozarkcon a couple of years ago

My opening remark was I asked the crowd( about 150 qrp enthusiasts) for 
a show of hands as to who owned an ARRL hand book. The crowd looked at 
each other and everyone in the room raised their hand. 
I remarked that when two of my friends made talks at two different 
radio clubs in Little Rock I asked them to poll the audience with the 
same question. They both were astounded. In one club it was 6 out of 27 
and the other it was 5 out of 24. I have had hams who heard my speech 
come up to me later even at Dayton and remark how their local clubs had 
gotten completely out of radio theory and gone to storm spotting. I 
quit 75 meter roundtables a couple of years ago because you cant talk 
about building or technology any more. All the newcomers want to talk 
about is Russ Limbaugh or the local football team. the president of the 
largest club in Little Rock has repeatedly argued with me that amateur 
radio exists only for public service and disaster relief. A local OES 
director told me in the event of a tornado he doesnt need a bunch of 
loose cannons with walkytalkeys he needs men with 4wheel drive pick up 
with winches and chainsaws who are willing to work under the 
supervision of utility crews and road crews to clear debris. 

I dont blame the lack of skills on the elimination of the code 
requirement but on the lack of emphasis on theory. Local ham classes 
stress that no one uses technology any more, just memorize the Q&A pool 
and get on the air. At an event for our local volunteer fire dept I met 
several who had gone through the classes and had general licenses but 
didnt own one piece of gear. We need to speak  and write to our ARRL 
reps and stress the need for more articles in QST about basic entry 
level projects. 

It doesnt just apply to activities like LW. 15 years ago a  local group 
put up an ATV repeater. At 25 miles away I could copy it on a hand held 
Casio TV. I could hit the repeater with 8 watts. I estimate there were 
2000+ hams in the county. We had 7 stations operating at one time. Only 
one ham bothered to hook a 440 outside antenna to a cable ready set and 
copy the ham ATV repeater. the rest simply werent interested. 

Public service is just good citizenship but should not be the focus of 
hamradio. 

Paul

Quoting cvest at cox.net:
> Sure would be nice to get a large number of lowfer and medfer beacons 
> from all
> over North America on the air for this season . 
> It would be a good learning experience and tuneup of getting familiar with MF
> and LF bands in advance of us getting our 470 kHz. 
> allocation . 
>
> I have been inactive on part 15 for a while now , but am working right now to
> get multi mode DDS/ GPS locked beacons ready to
> put on the air very shortly . Still trying to finalize the best 
> possible Medfer
> antenna . 
>
> If all of the North American members of these groups would put a 
> beacon on both
> bands , perhaps we could get some much
> needed publicity . 
>
> It still amazes me the number of people that don't realize these 
> bands exist and
> that they can use them as well as them learning
> that there are people already using them . Good stable inexpensive 
> designs are
> out there which about anyone can afford and
> there is certainly enough room for everyone to put a beacon on . 
>
> There is just far too little publicity about what is possible . Even if they
> can't manage a beacon loading coil , they can at least listen
> as long as there is enough activity to keep them interested . Sure 
> would be nice
> to see a record number of beacons on this
> season !!
>
> Charlie , W5COV
>
>
> ---- STEVE MCDONALD <VE7SL at shaw.ca> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Thanks for the link Warren...that really brings back some memories 
> of the days
> when the westcoast was a Lowfer hotbed. I wonder what happened to all of the
> interest from W6 land?
> >
> > Steve / 73
> >
> >
> > > Jerry,
> > >    Haven't seen the full Western Updates online but
> > > there is some fun stuff
> > > on Mike Mideke's site:
> > >
> > > http://www.auroralchorus.com/lowfers.htm
> > >
> > > 73 Warren K2ORS
> > >
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: "Jerry Parker" <wa6owr at gmail.com>
> > > To: <lowfer at mailman.qth.net>
> > > Sent: Sunday, August 26, 2012 8:18 PM
> > > Subject: [Lowfer] Western Updates
> > >
> > >
> > > > Is there a place online where I can see the Western Updates. 
> > > >
> > > > If not would someone be so kind as to loan them to me so I can
> > > >
> > > > make copies. 
> > > >
> > > > Thanks,
> > > >
> > > > Jerry Parker
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Paul Daulton K5WMS
beacon WMS 185.302 khz qrss30/slow 24/7
Jacksonville,Ar 72076
em34wu